The White Anti-Racist’s Guide to Dealing With Black Conservatives

Y’all be Out of Pocket Sometimes (Playing Right into Theirs).

White Liberals/Progressives Can Be Out of Pocket

As a photojournalist out here on these streets, I’ve seen it countless times: the white “not-conservative” sees the token Black conservative and decides to yell and scream at them. The angry yelling tends to be along the lines of, “How could you,” “You’re a traitor,” and can be as vulgar as calling them the creative names Black people have these types of Black people. Yikes. Let’s talk about this.

Conservatives of America and other MAGAs are a mostly white crowd in support of politics that now, in 2020, are explicitly white supremacist. If one were to look at the political spectrum, conservatives, liberals, and progressives are defined mainly by what they see in their rear-view mirror:

• Conservatives = See the past, love history, wish to return to it, or bring back critical elements.

• Progressives = See the past, do not wish to return to it; hopes to move forward.

• Liberals = Sees the past, do not wish to return to it; happy with the present.

Because of this fascinating dynamic, Black people of America will see — if exercising freedom of memory and are intellectually honest — state-sponsored terrorism inflicted on them.

Lynchings; beatings; denial of fundamental human rights; denial of political gain and meaningful participation; the list goes on. Keep in mind that we don’t have to mention slavery here.

For this reason, Black people as a collective will be mostly opposed to most conservative politics in America. Black people looking into the rear-view mirror of America will see the terrorism and horror, if intellectually honest, and will align progressive naturally, if not liberal.

Forward, not backwards, always.

There are some great things about what conservatives tend to own regarding the United States’ political dynamics. Gun rights? We can get behind that. But if returning Jim Crow law where it’s legal to run down Black people in the middle of the street and diminish the humanity of Black and other non-white people, those open gun laws seem not to matter. The value of humanity comes before the value of objects, or at least it should.

Recognizing and understanding that — as a white person — American conservative politics (Read: fascism) is categorically detrimental to Black life isn’t the problem. It’s what you do as a response. A lot of white people do not grasp this and require serious help here.

Analyzing the intent on showing up

Please understand that Black conservatives within the American conservative atmosphere serve, in warfare terms, as decoys and traps. When you, as a white liberal person, approach a Black conservative at a public demonstration, you need to understand that they are racial landmines explicitly placed for two purposes:

1. Validate white supremacist conservative causes (because colonialism can never work without the consent of some of the colonized) and;
2. Trap the less critically thinking, reactive white people like you into a “you heard what she called me? White liberals are the real racists” trap.

I know you have a Black friend. I know you have a Black boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse. I know you find us attractive. None of these things matter. None of these things are excuses for any name-calling or any form of attacking the person. You simply cannot do this as a white person and still claim to be a friend of the anti-racism mission of dismantling white supremacy.

Just because you may be technically correct, it doesn’t mean that it is your place to state so.

Let me be clear: there is a logical understanding of being baffled, frustrated and dare I say even disgusted at the sight of Black conservatives at a political event is valid. Your feelings are valid. Your actions, guided by those feelings, are not. I’m not telling you that you should be devoid of emotion out there. I’m telling you that the decisions you make based on those valid emotions are invalid.

The logic behind your emotions is also valid. There are numerous logical arguments and understandings behind your disdain and frustrations. The reason is valid, yes. But just because the logic and reason are valid, it doesn’t mean that the reactive behavior following it is.

Even further, you, as a white anti-racism asset, need to understand that it’s totally possible and near-ubiquitous for all your logic and reason to line up perfectly, and you still need to refrain from making statements.

Just because you may be technically correct, it doesn’t mean that it is your place to state so.

It is widespread for white allies to innately occupy Black-spaces. I’ve mentioned this before:

Black conservatives as pundits function as white supremacy ventriloquy; they perform as Black bodies that the more racially ignorant white people can live vicariously through. Progressives and liberals don’t need Black bodies to validate their stance or say what they want to say. This is also why white progressives/liberals tend to colonize intellectual Black space; They rather literally displace us in the conversation versus let us speak, which is a whole other problem to expand on another time. ~ Johnny S., AfroSapiophile, Oct 14th, 2020

Yes, when you allow yourself to react angrily at Black conservatives at these public events, you are indeed occupying Black-space, and it needs to stop. I did say it’s a problem to expand on another time, so consider this column continuity on stated point.

We do not require you to be angry in our place to the extent to which you call Black people racialized names. It doesn’t matter that they are gate-keepers and loyal dogs to white supremacy. You — white person — do not get to call them names and yell in their faces. There is no n-word for you. There is no coon word for you. There is no tanooki word for you. White people, stop calling them names.

Let me tell you, as a photographer just looking at the imagery of a white person yelling at a Black person, there is a profound racist connotation behind it.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, nine-hundred and ninety-six of those words are variations of the n-word. With words like that embedded in an image, it’s best not to ever be in a position to immortalize such racism.

If you are a genuine white asset to civil rights, you wouldn’t want to be caught dead doing this. This is kind of like how I as a cishet man, shouldn’t angrily get the face of a pro-life/transgender-hating woman. I’m not going to call her names, pointing to a treasonous nature. It’s not my place, even if I’m correct. The same proves true for you in this scenario. It’s simply not your place, even if you’re correct.

What you can do

There are two things you can do as a white liberal or progressive viewing Black conservatives at public events or even on online social media:

1. Ignore and Avoid. Remember the fact that the intent of Black conservatives’ presence is to function as decoys and traps. The prime target of these traps are you, the white liberal. Because of this, yelling and screaming — if that’s your main desire — should be aimed at other whites, not Black people. White people are horrendous at keeping other whites accountable, and white liberals are no different. Instead of angrily arguing in Black conservatives’ faces, calling names and all, focus that attention on White conservatives. Yell, scream, and point in the faces of other whites and live your best life because after all, they are the ones who are the majority of those who wish to destroy this nation’s democratic institutions to upkeep white supremacy. Please, ignore the Black ones. Trust me; we as Black folk are more than willing to police our own. Stop occupying Black-emotional-space. Do not provide racist imagery of you yelling at Blacks.
2. If you feel that you cannot resist and must engage, you can diligently and carefully provide a logical argument of your case, and against theirs, devoid of referencing race. Do not mention their race, ethnicity, or skin tone. I call this the “Tim Wise” method. Suppose you are ridiculously well-researched on the subject of politics of race. In that case, you can logically argue your point without ever inferring racial treason or any of the nasty name-calling stuff. This is a fascinating take because they will eventually announce their Blackness as some sort of Ebony Shield defense mechanism in many cases. You can say you never mentioned or inferred their race, and with the flawed “whoever mention race is the real racist” conservative talking point they love to choose as a hill to die on, they will by their own argument hoist themselves on their own petard. To do this, you have to be well-trained in logical debate; fast at determining and undermining their attempts at reframing the discussion; quick to point out logical fallacies; not allow gish-gallops, and not allow them to evade cornering questions or strawman your stance. To facilitate this, you need to read a lot of intellectual work from intellectually honest anti-racism/anti-fascism Black folks. Show your work; this is a high-skill decision, and we don’t do liabilities.

Overall

A lot of the power in being a black conservative stem from being Black, having a utility within a white supremacist group structure that grants powers to the Black conservative that the white conservative can never have. Both of the options presented have one thing in common: ignoring their inherent Blackness. You can render the black conservative useless on the field by robbing them of opportunity to accuse you, the white liberal of racism. There’s a reason why Candace Owens or Jesse Lee Petersen isn’t going to ever debate Tim Wise. If you can logically maneuver around their Blackness, which they will set like a landmine, they are a non-factor.

White liberals out here on the streets: Stop screaming and yelling at Black conservatives. They are racial landmines for you. We need you to police up your white supremacist white cousins, aunts and uncles, not the non-white persons deputized into it.